Posts Tagged ‘Hockey’

In the second game of the season the Red Wings seemed a little more energized than they did in game 1. They still had some giveaways but generally looked better. They dominated in puck possession and shots on goal but they still had trouble closing the deal and putting the puck in the net.

In the first period Picard scored for the Senators with a 5 on 3 power play goal. Then the Red Wings tied it up with a blistering shot by Filppula.

In the second period the referees went on a penalty spree. The Red Wings had an unproductive 5 on 3 for over a minute and the Senators had several power plays that were shut down by the Wings. Near the end of the period the Senators scored on an amazing individual effort by Foligno. He brought the puck in and was mugged by two Red Wings and lost the puck. He kept fighting through check and I thought we might see another penalty but even dragging two guys he was able to get control of the puck again snap it past Osgood. So even with a boatload of chances and some mostly solid play by the Red Wings, they still ended the period trailing by one.

A few minutes past the halfway point in the third period the Red Wings caught the Senators in a line change and Franzen brought the puck in. He lit Gerber up with a pinpoint shot that was just beautiful. That tied the game at 2. That goal really gave the Red Wings some jump and they were buzzing for another.

It was down to 1:17 left in regulation when Franzen crossed the blue line and released a wrister. It changed direction a time or two on the way and Gerber got a piece of it but it still trickled past him into the net giving the Red Wings the lead.

After the Senators pulled their goalie Dan Cleary shot for the empty net from his own end and missed thereby icing the puck. That made the end a ittle bit interested but the Red Wings were able to hold on and win the game.

Game 1 started with a fantasitc banner raising ceremony. The banner was brought onto the ice by some legendary Red Wings including Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, and Alex Delvecchio. They passed it off to a delegation of current Red Wings who carried it to center ice where it was then raised. All of the players from the cup team were on the ice including guys that have been sent to the minors or retired like, Helm, Drake, Downey, and Hasek. It was nice to see that everyone was able to take part in the ceremony.

Before the game Def Leppard played C’mon C’mon, which was apparently inspired by hockey and will be somewhat of a theme song for the league this season.

The downside of winning the Stanley Cup is that we’re going to have to get even more used to every team bringing their A-game when they play Detroit. The Leafs definitely did in game 1. Although the Wings looked great at times, the Maple Leafs seemed to be playing with desperation. They had more jump than the Wings did.

The Maple Leafs scored first with a power play goal. The puck was centered in front of Osgood who tried to sweep it away to the other side of the ice. Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough as Kubina came streaking in from the blue line and poked it away from Osgood and into the net.

In the second period the Leafs scored again at the tail end of a power play. A very short time later the Red Wings answered with a goal by Holmstrom who was parked in front of the net. He shot the puck backwards between his own legs, the defender’s and the goalie’s.

A giveaway by Cleary at his own blue line led to Toronto’s third goal of the night. It was one on one against Osgood and he just got beat.

Holmstrom did it again for the Red Wings second goal which came on a power play. Holmstrom was in front of the net again and was able to get control of the puck and poke it in.

In the end it wasn’t enough. The Wings pulled the goalie and had a power play for the last 30 seconds but could not tie the game. The ended with Toronto winning 3 to 2.

The Red Wings used a lot of their young players for this game. It was a chance for them to show Mike Babcock what they can do. They were basically competing for spots in the playoffs. We had a preseason lineup with a playoff atmosphere. It made for an interesting game.

In the first period the Red Wings had lots of scoring chances and several that I still don’t know how they didn’t go in. A few times the puck seemed to go everywhere in the world except over the goal line. McCarty got his first assist since his return when he made a great pass from the boards behind the net that found Hudler right in front for the goal.

At the other end, Hasek also had his share of circus-style saves. One that he snatched out the air just in front of the goal line and another that he popped up with his shoulder and it came down on top of the net just behind the crossbar.

Towards the end of the second period the Red Wings got a 5 on 3 power play. Cleary screened in front of the net and Lidstrom fired a one-timer bullet that found a hole for their second goal.

In the third period Mark Hartigan made a mistake at his own blue line by getting robbed of the puck before he got it out of the zone. It resulted in a great scoring chance for the Blackhawks and earned Hartigan the evil eye from Mike Babcock. Well, later in the period Hartigan made up for it by taking the puck away from a Chicago player and scoring unassisted. It was a great play by him and gave the Red Wings their third goal of the game.

Lidstrom scored the forth goal for the Red Wings on another power play. He took a shot from close to the blue line that was actually more of a pass. It bounced off the skate of a Chicago player right into the net.

Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks with around 2 minutes to go to rob Hasek of the shutout.

The Red Wings looked pretty good and ready for the playoffs. It seems like a long wait until Thursday when the playoffs will most likely start. Let’s go Red Wings!

The Red Wings honored Gordie Howe before the game to celebrate his 80th birthday (a day early). It was a very nice presentation. They gave him a framed jersey with number 17 on it, which was the number he wore his rookie year. Below the jersey in the frame was the original score sheet from his first game. They said that Gordie’s signing bonus was a Red Wings varsity jacket so they also gave him a new updated jacket.

The first period was pretty uneventful. There was no scoring and both teams seemed to be somewhat cautious.

In the second period the Red Wings generated some glorious scoring chances but Nashville’s goalie, Dan Ellis, made an equally glorious save for each one. At the other end Hasek was up to the challenge. He came up big when he had to and kept the Predators off the board. There was still no score heading into the third.

The third period was a carbon copy of the second. The Red Wings had lots of chances and the Predators had lots of miracles. At the end of regulation it was still tied 0-0.

Hasek made a huge save in OT when the Predators had a breakaway. It was one on one against the goalie and Hasek came up big.

All the scoring chances finally paid off for the Wings in OT as Franzen notched ANOTHER game-winning goal. That goal ended a shutout streak for Dan Ellis that lasted over 200 minutes which broke a Predators franchise record. If we end up facing the Predators in the first round of the playoffs this guy could give me nightmares. Maybe we jinxed him by breaking his streak.

Well, tonight was the first game back for Darren McCarty. It sure is great to see him back in a Red Wings uniform. In a classy move Babcock put the Grind Line back together to start the game. They didn’t play together after that, but at least they had that first shift. It was a nice sign of respect for McCarty’s history with the team.

The Red Wings celebrated Dallas Drake’s 1000th game. His family was on hand to join in the pre-game ceremony.

The Red Wings were trying to clinch the President’s Trophy tonight. They needed two points and a loss by San Jose in order to wrap that up in this game.

The Blues are out of the playoffs for he third year in a row but they are still playing to win. They were very physical in the first period and opened the scoring on a bang-bang play. Osgood never had a chance to stop the puck. It came from behind the net to Brad Boyes and he nailed it without hesitation.

The Blues scored early in he second. It was another goal that Osgood was mostly helpless to sop. It started out low and was deflected up off of a skate over Ozzy’s shoulder.

The Red Wings got on the baord not long after that with a power play goal by Rafalski. It was deflected as well, so that made up for the Blues second goal.

The Blues scored again in the third period on a rising shot from Andy McDonald. It looked like it might have redirected off of Lidstrom’s leg. That put the Blues up by two.

The Red Wings got another power play goal thanks to Franzen standing in front of the net cleaning up the rebounds. He’s been making a habit of that lately.

Then just a few minutes later, Franzen scored again to tie the game. It was a great pass by Zetterberg right in front of the net and Franzen had an easy tap in.

The tie held until the end of regulation, just barely. The Blues had a shot with less than a minute to go that bounced over Osgood and came down just on the top of the net. Luckily it kept going and came down behind instead of in front of the net.

The Blues scored the game winner in OT. So the Wings came away with a point. That’s not enough to clinch the President’s Trophy even if San Jose loses, so that’ll have to wait for another day. All in all, the Red Wings played pretty well.

Dan Cleary returned to the Red Wings lineup tonight and made an impact right away. He took a shot in the first period and Legace gave up a rebound that was popped in by Zetterberg. Cleary was credited with the only assist on the goal.

The Blues scored early in the second period. Detroit turned the puck over around their own blue line and it was taken by Andy McDonald all the way to the net. He made a nice deek around Osgood and burned him for the Blues only goal.

In third period Franzen got a nice working man’s goal by standing in Holmstrom’s office and cleaning up the rebound after a shot by Lidstrom. Franzen continues to play well, let’s hope he rolls right into the playoffs like this.

The Blues pulled their goalie with about a minute and a half to go. They generated some chances but weren’t able to tie the game.

The game started off with a pretty fast pace. Detroit looked great and got lots of shots on goal while holding the Blue Jackets to very few. In fact, the Blue Jackets were down by two goals before registering their first shot. The Red Wings scored two power play goals in the first 10 minutes. Datsyuk showed great patience on the first goal. He waited for the perfect opening to feed Lidstrom for the slap shot. Zetterberg got the second goal into a mostly wide open net thanks to a nice cross ice pass again from Datsyuk.

The Red Wings continued to dominate in the second period. They didn’t get any more goals, but they skated circles around Columbus. The Wings were first to almost every loose puck. They just seemed to have a lot more fire than the Blue Jackets.

Rick Nash scored for the Blue Jackets in the opening seconds of the third period. That seem to give the team a little energy and they started playing a bit better. It was short-lived however. Franzen continued his hot streak with a goal set up by a nice fake shot by Chelios. Then Datsyuk did some great work on a penalty kill, made nice move on Norrena and scored short handed. That put out whatever spark the Jackets had left.

Overall it was an incredible performance by the Red Wings. A complete 60 minute team effort. Just the sort of game that you want to see going into the playoffs.

Detroit had tons of chances in the first period but couldn’t capitalize. They even beat the goalie once but a Nashville player was on the goal line and slapped the puck out of the air away from the net as it was on its way in. Nashville managed to score on a lucky bounce that went off of somebody’s skate. There was nothing Hasek could have done about it.

The defensemen took matters into their own hands in the second as Kronwall, Chelios, and Rafalski all scored. Nashville pulled their goalie after only the second goal. Seemed a little harsh, but I can’t second guess Barry Trotz, he’s a phenomenal coach. Hasek made some great saves on the few occasions he was called upon in the second.

It got a little chippy at the end of the period. Nothing much came of it though. Lilja and Fiddler looked more like they were about to make out than fight.

Nashville mounted a comeback in the third scoring two goals in quick succession. Franzen answered with an awesome individual effort carrying the puck all around the offensive zone and then popping it in the net.

Hasek made some incredible saves as Nashville tried to come back. Then Datsyuk took the puck on a breakaway and beat the goalie. He added an empty netter for good measure and that put the Nashville Predators to bed.

The first period was relatively dull. The Red Wings didn’t get much going offensively since they were busy killing off penalties most of the time. There were a few defensive mistakes but Osgood was there to save their bacon as needed.

The second period was more of the same. The only difference was the Blue Jackets scored a power play goal. It was somewhat controversial because the refs sent Lidstrom to the box for high sticking but it was actually Rafalski who committed the foul. Not only that but the high stick happened after a Columbus player ran into Osgood. If that would have been called or if Lidstrom had been on the ice the goal might not have happened.

As dull as the first two periods were, the third period more than made up for it. Zetterberg decided to take matters into his own hands. He started with a goal on which he took the puck all the way through the zone, beating two defenders and the goalie to score by sheer force of will. Then he scored a power play goal on a brilliant pass from Datsyuk to take the lead. Only a few seconds later he stole puck near center ice and Norrena came out to challenge. Zetterberg dipped around him and popped in it for a natural hat trick!

To the best of my recollection this is the first time that I’ve seen a true natural hat trick. Way to go, Hank!

This game started with a great flow, hardly any whistles. Unfortunately, Hasek gave up a goal on the second shot on goal.

The first period was very physical. There were lots of big hits. Even Datsyuk was playing rough and took a penalty at the end of the period for hitting somebody who didn’t have the puck. I think he might be trying to avoid the Lady Byng this year.

Hasek didn’t have a good look at Columbus’ second goal because he was screened. He was still able to kick puck away from the net when he saw it at the last second but it hit Chelios and bounced back into the net.

Columbus’ third goal was batted out of the air in front of Hasek. It looked to me like it was a high stick but it was hard to tell for sure. They reviewed and found it to be good so I’ll have to take their word for it.

The Wings got on the board when two Blue Jackets collided causing an odd man rush. One of the Blue Jackets players apparently did some yapping after the goal and got a 2 minute unsportsmanlike penalty. The Red Wings were unable to even get a single shot on the power play.

After the power play ended the Jackets really started buzzing (no pun intended). They outworked the Red Wings and got another goal. That was the last straw for Babcock and he put Osgood in to replace Hasek.

Detroit’s got another goal on the power play when Datsyuk made a sick pass to Franzen. Even in slow motion it was hard to see what happened. It was like lighting.

Franzen got another power play goal late in the third by working hard in front of the net. It was a great for him.

Unfortunately, even though Ozzy didn’t allow anymore goals, the Wings weren’t able to score enough to catch up and ended up with another loss.